The Low-Mass Populations in OB Associations
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Briceño et al.: Low-mass Populations in OB Associations 345 The Low-Mass Populations in OB Associations César Briceño Centro de Investigaciones de Astronomía Thomas Preibisch Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie William H. Sherry National Optical Astronomy Observatory Eric E. Mamajek Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Robert D. Mathieu University of Wisconsin–Madison Frederick M. Walter Stony Brook University Hans Zinnecker Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam Low-mass stars (0.1 < M < 1 M ) in OB associations are key to addressing some of the most fundamental problems in star formation. The low-mass stellar populations of OB asso- ciations provide a snapshot of the fossil star-formation record of giant molecular cloud com- plexes. Large-scale surveys have identified hundreds of members of nearby OB associations, and revealed that low-mass stars exist wherever high-mass stars have recently formed. The spatial distribution of low-mass members of OB associations demonstrate the existence of significant substructure (“subgroups”). This “discretized” sequence of stellar groups is consistent with an origin in short-lived parent molecular clouds within a giant molecular cloud complex. The low- mass population in each subgroup within an OB association exhibits little evidence for signifi- cant age spreads on timescales of ~10 m.y. or greater, in agreement with a scenario of rapid star formation and cloud dissipation. The initial mass function (IMF) of the stellar populations in OB associations in the mass range 0.1 < M < 1 M is largely consistent with the field IMF, and most low-mass pre-main-sequence stars in the solar vicinity are in OB associations. These findings agree with early suggestions that the majority of stars in the galaxy were born in OB associations. The most recent work further suggests that a significant fraction of the stellar population may have their origin in the more spread out regions of OB associations, instead of all being born in dense clusters. Groundbased and spacebased (Spitzer Space Telescope) infra- red studies have provided robust evidence that primordial accretion disks around low-mass stars dissipate on timescales of a few million years. However, on close inspection there appears to be great variance in the disk dissipation timescales for stars of a given mass in OB associations. While some stars appear to lack disks at ~1 m.y., a few appear to retain accretion disks up to ages of ~10–20 m.y. 1. INTRODUCTION expanding stellar systems of blue luminous stars. These generally include groups of T Tauri stars or T associations Most star formation in normal galaxies occurs in the (Kholopov, 1959; Herbig, 1962; Strom et al., 1975) as well cores of the largest dark clouds in spiral arms, known as as clusters, some containing massive (M > 10 M ) stars, but giant molecular clouds (GMCs). A GMC may give rise to all teeming with solar-like and lower-mass stars. one or more star complexes known as OB associations, first Although we now recognize OB associations as the prime defined and recognized by Ambartsumian (1947) as young sites for star formation in our galaxy, much of our knowl- 345 346 Protostars and Planets V edge of star formation is based on studies of low-mass (M < 3. Bound vs. unbound clusters. While many young 1 M ) pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars located in nearby T stars are born in groups and clusters, most disperse rapidly; associations, like the ~1–2 m.y. old Taurus, Lupus, and Cha- few clusters remain bound over timescales >10 m.y. The maeleon star-forming regions. The view of star formation conditions under which bound clusters are produced are not conveyed by these observations is probably biased to the clear. Studies of older, widely spread low-mass stars around particular physical conditions found in these young, quies- young clusters might show a time sequence of cluster for- cent regions. In contrast, the various OB associations in the mation, and observations of older, spreading groups would solar vicinity are in a variety of evolutionary stages and yield insight into how and why clusters disperse. environments, some containing very young objects (ages 4. Slow vs. rapid disk evolution. Early studies of near- <1 m.y.) still embedded in their natal gas (e.g., Orion A and infrared dust emission from low-mass young stars suggested B clouds, Cep OB2), others in the process of dispersing their that most stars lose their optically thick disks over periods parent clouds, like λ Ori and Carina, while others harbor of ~10 m.y. (e.g., Strom et al., 1993), similar to the time- more evolved populations, several million years old, that scale suggested for planet formation (Podosek and Cassen, have long since dissipated their progenitor clouds (like Scor- 1994). However, there is also evidence for faster evolution pius-Centaurus and Orion OB1a). The low-mass popula- in some cases; for example, half of all ~1-m.y.-old stars in tions in these differing regions are key to investigating fun- Taurus have strongly reduced or absent disk emission (Beck- damental issues in the formation and early evolution of stars with et al., 1990). The most recent observations of IR emis- and planetary systems: sion from low-mass PMS stars in nearby OB associations 1. Slow vs. rapid protostellar cloud collapse and mo- like Orion suggest that the timescales for the dissipation of lecular cloud lifetimes. In the old model of star forma- the inner disks can vary even in coeval populations at young tion (see Shu et al., 1987) protostellar clouds contract slowly ages (Muzerolle et al., 2005). until ambipolar diffusion removes enough magnetic flux for 5. Triggered vs. independent star formation. Although dynamical (inside-out) collapse to set in. It was expected it is likely that star formation in one region can “trigger” that the diffusion timescale of ~10 m.y. should produce a more star formation later in neighboring areas, and there is similar age spread in the resulting populations of stars, evidence for this from studies of the massive stars in OB consistent with the <40 m.y. early estimates of molecular populations (e.g., Brown, 1996), proof of causality and cloud lifetimes (see discussion in Elmegreen, 1990). Such precise time sequences are difficult to obtain without study- age spreads should be readily apparent in color-magnitude ing the associated lower-mass populations. In the past, stud- or HR diagrams for masses <1 M . However, the lack of ies of the massive O and B stars have been used to investi- even ~10-m.y.-old, low-mass stars in and near molecular gate sequential star formation and triggering on large scales clouds challenged this paradigm, suggesting that star forma- (e.g., Blaauw, 1964, 1991, and references therein). How- tion proceeds much more rapidly than previously thought, ever, OB stars are formed essentially on the main sequence even over regions as large as 10 pc in size (Ballesteros- (e.g., Palla and Stahler, 1992, 1993) and evolve off the main Paredes et al., 1999), and therefore that cloud lifetimes over sequence on a timescale on the order of 10 m.y. (depend- the same scales could be much shorter than 40 m.y. (Hart- ing upon mass and amount of convective overshoot), thus mann et al., 1991). they are not useful tracers of star-forming histories on time- 2. The shape of the IMF. Whether OB associations scales of several million years, while young low-mass stars have low-mass populations according to the field IMF, or are. Moreover, we cannot investigate cluster structure and if their IMF is truncated, is still a debated issue. There have dispersal or disk evolution without studying low-mass stars. been many claims for IMF cutoffs in high-mass star-form- Many young individual clusters have been studied at both ing regions (see, e.g., Slawson and Landstreet, 1992; optical and infrared wavelengths (cf. Lada and Lada, 2003), Leitherer, 1998; Smith et al., 2001; Stolte et al., 2005). How- but these only represent the highest-density regions, and do ever, several well-investigated massive star-forming regions not address older and/or more widely dispersed popula- show no evidence for an IMF cutoff [see Brandl et al. (1999) tions. In contrast to their high-mass counterparts, low-mass and Brandner et al. (2001) for the cases of NGC 3603 and stars offer distinct advantages for addressing the aforemen- 30 Dor, respectively], and notorious difficulties in IMF de- tioned issues. They are simply vastly more numerous than terminations of distant regions may easily lead to wrong con- O, B, and A stars, allowing statistical studies not possible clusions about IMF variations (e.g., Zinnecker et al., 1993; with the few massive stars in each region. Their spatial dis- Selman and Melnick, 2005). An empirical proof of a field- tribution is a fossil imprint of recently completed star for- like IMF, rather than a truncated IMF, has important con- mation, providing much needed constraints for models of sequences not only for star-formation models but also for molecular cloud and cluster formation and dissipation; with scenarios of distant starburst regions; e.g., since most of the velocity dispersions of ~1 km s–1 (e.g., de Bruijne, 1999) stellar mass is then in low-mass stars, this limits the amount the stars simply have not traveled far from their birth sites of material that is enriched in metals via nucleosynthesis in (~10 pc in 10 m.y.). Low-mass stars also provide better massive stars and that is then injected back into the inter- kinematics, because it is easier to obtain accurate radial stellar medium by the winds and supernovae of the mas- velocities from the many metallic lines in G-, K-, and M- sive stars.